Upgrade to 2016 and 9.5 ?

[tomhkr]

I would like to upgrade my Veeam Backup and Replication server (which also doubles as a Proxy) from Windows Server 2012R2/ VBR 9.0 to Windows 2016 and VBR 9.5
It is a physical machine and thus I cannot build a second machine parallell to it and switch over.

What would be the recommended course of action?

[kristofpoppe]

Hello, if you don't have another machine, this is the way I should work:

- Bring your current Veeam to a version that allows upgrade to 9.5
- Stop all Veeam services and backup jobs
- Inplace upgrade of your 2012 R2 to 2016 (quite straight forward, but depending on specific hardware, drivers, storage,...)
- If you have local backup partitions, temp. copy the data to another location and re-format to ReFS
- Start upgrading to 9.5


Benefit from 9.5 features on ReFS backup storage

[mkretzer]

Why not first update to 9.5 and then windows? That way it is two steps...

[kristofpoppe]

It's not clear that an already upgraded 9.5 will see if he's on 2016.

Veeam always remains the previous settings to break nothing.

[mkretzer]

@gostev: Is that so? Will it not detect 2016?

[foggy]

Veeam B&R v9 didn't support Windows 2016, so I recommend starting upgrade from the Veeam B&R itself and then upgrade the OS. You will be able to use any new functionality introduced in Veeam B&R v9.5. Don't forget to backup Veeam B&R configuration prior the upgrade, just in case.

[veremin]

As to ReFS features support, regardless of upgrade procedure those are intended to be used on new repositories, rather than on existing ones. In other words, you won't be able to enable them on existing repository and after the upgrade you will have to add a ReFS formatted volume as a new repository to get access to 9.5 ReFS gems.

Thanks.

[tdewin]

Btw, you can verify if ReFS is succesfully detected if Align blocks is checked/greyed out in the advanced settings of your repository

[tomhkr]

I was thinking of making a complete new installation of Windows 2016 on the same machine, not an upgrade.
I would like to keep a possibility to recover my 2012 R2 installation in case something does not work.
I'd assume something like this;

1. Upgrade current 2012R2 / VBR 9.0 to VBR 9.5, make sure it works
2. Backup VBR configuration
3. Make a Veeam Endpoint backup of the server and make sure it is restorable with bare metal restore
4. Format and reinstall Windows 2016 and then VBR 9.5
5. Restore VBR backup
If something goes wrong I could restore the machine from the endpoint baremetal backup. ?

[foggy]

Your plan looks solid. Though p.1 is not actually required, since you can import v9 configuration directly into v9.5.

[DaStivi]

i did a inplace upgrade from 2008r2 to 2012r2 back one year now... on rtm 9.5 i did upgraded Veeam to 9.5 and inplace upgraded to server 2016 now... without any issues...

i've an quite "old" HP 360gen7 server... installed all hp tools with spp and it's up and running fine!

[archambeaud]

Hi,

I have first upgraded from 9.0 to 9.5 and only after I have upgraded from Server 2012 R2 to 2016.
I have formatted my repositories with ReFS but into it I see that the "Align backup data block" is not greyed out.
So, is Veeam using the new ReFS features ? If I undersand this post I thing not.

Is there a way to enable it ?

Thanks

[Mike Resseler]

David,

If you have formatted your volume with ReFS, and then add it as a new repository it should be detected automatically that it is a new repository and ReFS capable. Is that how you did it? It also might be the case that (since you upgraded from 2012 to 2016 there went something wrong there... Can you check the ReFS version number? You can check that with this:

Code: Select all

fsutil fsinfo refsinfo <driveletter>

[archambeaud]

Hi,

The ReFS version is 3.1, but I remember that I don't have added it as a new repository.

I have stopped all veeam services, moved data, formated the drive and copy back the data.
So Veeam is probably not aware of the change of partition type.

I will try to remove and add the repositories.

I'll let you know.

[archambeaud]

Hi,

Ok, after delete and add back the repositories they are well detected as ReFS.

David

[veremin]

Correct, ReFS-specific features get enabled for new repositories, not existing ones. Glad to hear that you are up and running now. Thanks.

[Mike Resseler]

Hi David,

Thanks! Happy to hear it works now!

M/

[Pierreh]

hi,
I have Veeam 9.5 installed on windows server 2016, my proxy is physical machine having windows server 2012 r2.
Now have upgraded our hyper-V to 2016, backup stopped working. Now do I have upgrade the proxy to 2016? does it need to be fresh 2016 installation or it can upgrade? anything need to be done on the backup server or only proxy.

Thank you and appreciate your help

[foggy]

Off-host proxy should run the same OS version as the Hyper-V itself. No need for a fresh installation though, you can just upgrade the OS.